ARRGGH! A Pirate Festival for Us

Last weekend I actually had a Saturday and Sunday off of work. They had a scheduled power shut down over the weeekend which caused me to have to work on Thursday and Friday night. It was actually really nice to have a 'weekend' off. We got the family (well, some of it) together and went to the Pirate Festival. This is the first year we attended. I usually attend the Renaissance Faire which is in May, but I have missed it the past few years. Nico's birthday is in September so this was a fun way to get the family together and then head to Culver's for dinner and ice cream cake.

Every parent needs one of these in their backyard for those wonderful teenagers ~arrgggh!

My brother, Vince, sitting with the ladies at the Gentlemen's Club.

I can't get the photos to move around right, so I am giving up posting photos for the night. I hope to get more on soon.

Kreative Blogger Award

I have been so busy with the beautiful weather and getting ready for vacation that I have forgotten to post my blogger award I received. I have received the "Kreativ" Blog Award from http://lifeafter18seconds.blogspot.com This family has a beautiful daughter adopted from China. I love following blogs of other adoptive families.

So here are the rules for the "Kreativ" Blog award:

Thank the person who nominated you.

Copy and paste the logo on your blog.

Link the nominator on your blog.

Name seven things about yourself.

Nominate seven "kreativ bloggers".

Post links to the nominated blogs.

Leave a comment on each of the blogs.

Okay, so the 7 things about myself:
1. I can be very stubborn and very independent. Since getting divorced 15 years ago I became a stronger, more independent person. I think this is a good thing for me as I was always very shy. I love my life now and where I am at in it.

2. I love children. I would have a houseful if I could. I am so thankful to have my three boys through adoption and to have been able to adopt two of them by myself. They bring all the joy I need.

3. I enjoy the outdoors. We recently moved to the country and I could not be happier than just sitting on my front porch watching my boys run around the yard or looking for frogs by the pond. The quiet of the country is one of the many things I love.

4. I am so happy I have found my soul mate and love of my life via internet dating. I never thought I would try internet dating and my mom was scared for me when I told her about it. However, I never would have met Mike if I had not done it. We have so much in common in our likes, dislikes, and beliefs. He is a super dad to the boys. I cannot get over how he is so taken with them and supported me so much in the second Guatemalan adoption.

5. I love roller coasters but can't ride them because they upset my stomach too bad. However, I love watching my family get off the rides and seeing the thrill on their faces from the rush they get. I can stand in line and wait for them all day as long as they are enjoying themselves and not fighting. :-)

6. I love camping. I am so glad we were able to inherit a motor home and Mike is fantastic about getting everything working so we can use it.

7. I am thankful I have a good job, especially in today's economy. They just had a layoff at work and I made the cut to keep my job. I no longer complain about going to work and am more willint to put in some overtime. I know that the job could be gone at any moment.

Have fun visiting the following "Kreativ" blogs.

www.guatemala-leslie.blogspot.com. Leslie's blog is so cute. Her posts are short and sweet and her children are beautiful.

kellyskornerblog.com. Kelly's blog has several blog hops. This week is recipes! Yummy. She also went through a trial of trying to get pregnant and finally had a beautiful daughter who spent quite a while in the hospital after birth. She is adorable!

avianareese.blogspot.com. Sweet Aviana was hit by a car as she and her grandpa were crossing the street. My heart goes out to her parents as her mom is so open about everything and Aviana is such a fighter. She is home and her parents are now able to give her the undivided attention and love she can only get at home.

MckLinky Blog Hop - Show Off Your Art

We are a homeschooling family. My 7 year old son loves art. Since I hated art in grade school and am not what I consider an artist or someone who can teach it well, Nico takes an art class outside of our home. This is just a sampling of his art work from last year. We now decorate our home with his art work and my photography.

Several pictures Nico, 7 yo, drew and painted in art class.

This picture now is framed and hangs by our Christmas tree. (This way Luca won't grab the baby Jesus from the manger ;-)

I have been having fun using the Lightroom photo editing program to edit some of my photos. It has been 7 years since I have had professional photos taken of my children. I enjoy getting the real life photos as they don't sit still like that anyway.

School is in Session!

Flowers in our back field. We were learning about flowers this week and I couldn't wait to get out and take some photos of these. I love this one and plan to enlarge it, frame it, and hang it on the wall.

We officially started our first day of school on August 31. We continue to do lessons through the summer, but focus on them for 3 days out of the week, we are now back to 5 days a week. We also added in the extra subjects such as Health, Writing, US History, and Spelling. Nico is enjoying everything so far and doing well. We are finished with lessons in about 4 hours. I have been making us get up by 8am and started by 8:30am or 9 am at the latest.

My handsome prince!

This week we add to our schedule art classes, hip-hop, and tumbling.

Luca is learning so much! He has been telling us when he poops ( "doo-doo" in Luca language) and last week actually went on the toilet---yipee! At only 27 months I am excited. Nico was potty trained by 32 months, so we are shooting for 3o months for Luca.

Luca is counting, "one, three, one, two, one, one..." it is so cute! He points to things or moves them as he counts so he is making the association of a number to an object. He loves doing puzzles and always asks to draw when Nico is doing his lessons. He is so proud of his work.

His vocabulary is expanding and changing. He was saying 'dye' for bye, and just today said, 'bye-bye' with a 'b'....I liked the incorrect pronuciation it kept him little. He also says, "I want...", and will say, "mommy, I want...) and either point or say what he wants. My favorite is hearing him say MAMA! He is really quite a clown and loves his big brother. He did say Brian last week when we had Brian with us for an afternoon. Of course, Brian was excited since he doesn't see him much.

These boys just make my day everyday. They have so much fun together. Nico takes Luca down to the pond and is teaching him how to look for frogs. I love watching them walk down there with Luca keeping right up with Nico. They played outside for about an hour the other evening with Luca picking berries off the tree and Nico smashing them. Nico said they were playing Indians.

Luca is going to be one smart cookie just like his brothers. He absorbs EVERYTHING!

Luca using the magnifying glass to get a close up look at the flowers.